London
by Liebling
Summary: ‘He wants to tell her they don't make people like they used to. But all he tells her is, ‘I miss London.’’ (Andromeda Black & Ted Tonks)


**Author's Notice:** This is a weird fic. Andromeda Black/Ted Tonks, a challenge. Bloody heck, these challenges are killin' me, I tell you. Anyway. I wrote it quickly it's very...jumpy, that's how I write, get over it.  It's weird.

**Disclaimer:** All JK's (-you go girl-)

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...If you want a piece of London give a piece of your soul...

_Two people were ignorant for a very long time. All they had were their minds._

-

He says, in the real world, there's no magic so people have to create it.  And in the magical world, there's no reality, so people have to create it.  He says he likes creating magic more than he likes creating reality.

Don't tell him about reality, anyway. He's had enough of that.  He's had enough of it for at least twenty years and maybe even more.  He's had enough of that. Don't tell him about reality.

Don't tell her about magic, she's through with it.  Merlin and Albus and Sirius Black, wizards, what does that mean?  She's had enough of it for at least twenty years and maybe more. Don't tell her about magic.

There's nowhere to go when you're a wizard. You stay trapped in magic, floating in magic, smothered in magic until you die.  It's nice being smothered in magic if your brain is too. She always doubted magic; don't ask her why, she won't answer.

When you're a muggle, you are in London forever. You never leave London. Well, sometimes you do but your heart never does. If you leave London you're silly.  London is a great place, there's even a smell of London.  Dirty newspapers and hot tea.  The Queen's voice is always in the back of your mind.  God Save the Queen and all of that.

But sometimes, you find an escape.

-

Andromeda Black and Ted Tonks.

She met him when she was twenty- one, and she always remembers it because she wasn't used to muggle London. She thinks that she's left her soul back in the Leaky Cauldron.  There's something off with her, he knows, right when he sees her at _his _spot in _his _cafe.

He says, 'I don't...go out much, you know.'  And she laughs because, really, she doesn't go out much either.  But this isn't her town, this is muggle London and she's sort of trapped.  There must be something else out there.

He sees a spark in her eyes, the kind that you don't see in every other person in every other cafe.  The kind that makes you think, think of what it'd be like to be in love.  He's never been in love, and he's never felt like that about someone before.

She knows he's looking at her and she looks away, why did attention have to make her scared? Why did she shy away from everything?  Why was she in the middle of muggle London?  And why...why couldn't he stop staring?

'I have to go back...' is all she says, as she drains her tea.

'I have to go back too...' he says.

He's following her.

And she knows that for the rest of her life, she'll never be able to get rid of him.

So why try?

-

They get married.  Summer of...well, no one knows dates anymore. But it was quite a while ago.  It was in a nice chapel, not London, his soul's still there though.  She does something with magic, he knows, and that's sort of...sort of cool, you know? And he talks of radios and toasters and that's sort of...sort of cool too.

His ideals are different.  He thinks about London all the time. This world isn't all it's cracked up to be, it's sort of lonely. He knows why she doesn't like it here, here in this world she was brought up in.  Everything's lonely with magic, and most things are lonely even without it.

He tells her 'London's very dreary.  This place is very…magical.'  He always picks all the wrong words.

She can't explain it to him, or you, or anyone really.  It's this feeling. This sensation. She's had enough of magic, all she wants is reality. This world, it's all acid pops and owls.  Magic gets boring, it's not supposed to, but she knows all of the spells and she knows nothing of it.  Not like Ted does.

Ted says: 'I thought you all wore big cloaks and pointy hats and rode broomsticks, at least in my dreams...'

'Ted,' she says stiffly, 'this world isn't half as nice. People kill each other just like they do everywhere. And they fight and they yell and scream and struggle to survive. And sometimes, if they're lucky enough they love each other.'

-

He misses his friends. Andy the most, and Sasha second most.  Sometimes he wants to go back to his cafe (and his seat) and live the life he used to live. Without her. Without her bringing him bloody down, wherever he turns. Without her stupid emotions. Without her crazy ideas. Without her world.

But he knows he can't. Can't turn back now.

She's shying away from him again...she's telling him that she's okay, that it's all okay, that she'll get better.

She's going mad in this world they call magical.  She's going mad.

One day, they get in a fight. Right after he says he loves her.

'You don't even know what love is Ted!  All you know is that you feel _something _for me!  You don't know what it is...you don't know anything!'

'I love you Andromeda...can't you see that? I want you to be happy!'

'I hate my job and I hate my family and I hate...'

'Don't say it.'

'YOU Ted, YOU.  I didn't want to meet you; I didn't ask you to love me. And here you are, in my world, loving me. Loving me like no one has ever done for me. I don't get it, Ted. I don't understand it. Why...why do you love me?'

It's a very difficult question because, well.  Why does the water change colors when you look at it?   And why do children believe in unicorns?  And why...why oh why did Noah build an ark?

He takes a deep breath, 'Because you're Andromeda Black.'

He must've been old when he said this, because when he was young he would think up many reasons. You're nice and you're smart. But really, he loves her because she's her. He loves her because she's Andromeda. There's nothing else to it.

'I love you...' she says quietly '...go back to London.'

He's in awe. Awe.  He sits there and he just stares at her: 'And leave you?'

'Neither of us are happy. I don't know how it happened. I met you one day and fell in love the next, and the next we were married and then we had a child...and now, now...you …you're left in London. Everything about you. Your smile, the one I saw you with when we met, it's all left in London.  And I, I belong here Ted.'

It was why muggles and wizards never fell in love. Because even love couldn't make this better. 

He wants to say no, and that that isn't true at all. That he hasn't grown old here, and that they see each other all the time and both are happy. He wants to tell her that they used to be happy when they were younger and that he remembers...everything.

He wants to tell her they don't make people like they used to.

But all he tells her is, _'I miss London.'_

-

He's been back here for five years now. Same old cafe. Same old boy. Same old man, what's the difference really?  Same old friends. Andy and Sasha ask where he was all this time, he laughs, he says: 'I was living, you know...in Russia.' Russia, they say? What's that all about?

Ted says he liked Russia because it was interesting and he hated Russia because it was interesting. He says, very quickly that he missed London and the smell of dirty newspapers and old tea. And he misses God Save the Queen especially.

_Especially._

He says he likes his life now. He says his soul is where it belongs, in London.

-

She's been living alone for five years now.  Same old Leaky Cauldron. Same old butterbeer. Same old spells.  Same old family. Sirius Black and Regulus and sometimes even Narcissa and Lucius. The old crowd. The wild crowd.  They ask her, very quietly who that boy in her life was.  

She laughs, 'Ted...Ted Tonks.'  They don't know who he is, and wasn't he part of that famous wizard family?...no.

She loves Ted now, just as much as always and just as less as never.  She loves Ted now, but now life is nicer.  

Hand me that acid pop, throw me my wand, I'll hex you. It's magic...she laughs, but love is better.

-

_Two people were ignorant for a very long time. All they had were their minds._

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End


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